Former Central Regional Minister, Kwamena Duncan has provided justification for President Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo to tax Ghanaians on the free water and electricity supplies last year.

President Nana Akufo-Addo provided free water and electricity to Ghanaians in the wake of the Coronavirus pandemic to ease the hardships confronting the citizenry.

The Minister of Information, Kojo Oppong Nkrumah, in a recent interview on Joy News, disclosed that the government bore about 19 billion cedis to respond to the pandemic, hence justifying why the citizens will have to now pay back in taxes.

Speaking to host Kwami Sefa Kayi on Peace FM's "Kokorkoo", Kwamena Duncan also backed the President's tax decision stressing the freebies were to protect lives but after protecting the lives of Ghanaians, the economy has to be revived.

"If there was no life, if there was devastation and we had lost millions of the Ghanaian people; what would be the essence of the economy? So, Akufo-Addo said 'no, I must protect lives first, so damn the economy' . . . It was to protect life because if he had not done that, the country would have collapsed".

"Ten/eleven months, teachers were not in classrooms and yet the President found money to pay them, not only; several areas of public life . . . The move by the President from March, April, May, June, that in the face of dwindling revenues; we got free water. It was to protect life. In the face of dwindling revenues, our economic activities were truncated. With electricity, higher consumers paid only half of the bills while low consumers paid nothing. He chose life over the economy," he said.

He called on Ghanaians to agree and support the President.

"We should all unite behind the President and the Vice President."